Sartù|rice

Before preparing the rice that will form the frame of the timbale, it is a good idea to prepare the filling, which may be more or less rich, according to circumstances and the grocery shopping.

To prepare the meatball sauce, mix the mince with the sausage, Parmesan cheese and egg in a bowl, mixing the ingredients with your hands to blend them well. Add also a teaspoon of salt full to the brim. With well-cleaned hands, form meatballs the size of hazelnuts and fry them several times in very hot oil for just few minutes until they are golden brown. Lay them on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil
and prepare the tomato sauce.

In a large pot, heat a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with a clove of crushed garlic. When the garlic is golden, add the tomato puree and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes to develop more flavor. At this point, add the meatballs and cook over low heat for another 10 minutes.
To prepare the timbale, once all the ingredients are ready, start cooking the rice.

Use two ladles of the tomato sauce from the meatballs, keeping the meatballs aside and put it in the bottom of a pot. Heat it up and add the rice. Bring it up to 2/3 of cooking time by adding hot water gradually. Beware that it tends to stick, so keep the heat low and stir very often without losing sight of it. Take it off the heat, add a whole whipped egg and grated Parmesan cheese, mix and spread it out in a baking dish so
it will cool down completely.

Take an 18-cm-diameter mold, butter it completely and dust it with breadcrumbs, shake the mold to remove excess breadcrumbs. Line the mold with the now-cold rice, keeping a few spoonfuls aside to close the timbale.

Mix the sauce with the meatballs, peas and crumbled sausage and cook them all together for a few minutes to develop more flavor.
Fill the rice box formed with a layer of sauce with the meatballs, a layer of diced mozzarella, a sprinkling of Parmesan and a few knobs of butter. Repeat the layers and close the timbale with the remaining rice leveling the surface well.

Dust the timbale with breadcrumbs, add a few butter flakes and bake in a hot oven at 180°C for about 45 minutes, until it’s golden brown.
Remove it from the oven, let it cool about 10 minutes, then carefully run a knife along the edge of the mold and carefully turn the sartù over onto a serving plate. Serve it immediately.